“Achieving Self-Renewal”: The National Outdoor Leadership School and the Work of a Generation, 1960s–70s

Founded in 1965 by American mountaineer Paul Petzoldt, the National Outdoor Leadership School [NOLS] instructed young adults in the skills of outdoor travel, including backpacking, camping, orienteering, and climbing.  Outdoor recreation had contributed to rising sentiment for wilderness preservation, including the 1964 passage of the Wilderness Act – which ironically heightened visitor impact.  NOLS intended to teach young men (and soon women) responsible ways to experience the outdoors; its expeditions involved strenuous work and steep learning curves.  This new outdoorsmanship echoed older camping and woodcraft manuals, but instead of living off the land, NOLS emphasized living lightly on the land, an evolving framework for environmental ethics.  This entailed education in acquiring appropriate, modern equipment from a developing consumer market for high-tech outdoor gear.

Equipment and skills training, however, were closely tied to the work of “self-renewal.”  For a generation of young people that, according to Petzoldt, had a “hunger for reality,” rugged outdoor work embodied an important cultural counterpoint to mass-produced camping experiences: whether at densely-packed, amenity-rich family campgrounds in state and national parks, or in organized youth camps, with their “weaving of lanyards [and…] compulsory singing of jolly songs around the campfire.”  NOLS instead set out to spearhead emergent modes of thinking about outdoor work and experience – away from practices focused upon producing comfort and leisure, and towards the expression of authenticity, independence, alternative outlooks, and responsible stewardship of the land.  For NOLS participants, and others loading up their packs, challenging work in wilderness enabled new possibilities for personal identity. 

This idea of “self-renewal” through outdoor work has persisted.  For the roundtable discussion, a brief exploration of the origins of NOLS and its generational shift serve to engage us in broader questions about the changing relationships between work and consumption as well as personal and political identities.